For decades, the United States has fashioned itself the champion of an open internet, arguing that the web should be largely unregulated and that digital data should flow around the globe unhindered by borders. The government has argued against internet censorship abroad and even funded software that lets people in autocratic states get around online content restrictions.

几十年来，美国一直把自己塑造成开放互联网的捍卫者，认为网络应该基本上不受监管，数据应该不受国界阻碍，在全球范围内流动。政府反对国外的互联网审查制度，甚至为一些软件提供了资金，让专制国家的人们得以绕过网络内容限制。

Now that reputation could take a hit.

现在，这种声誉可能会受到打击。

The House is expected to again try to advance legislation to force a sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or institute a first-of-its-kind ban on the app in the United States, this time including it in an aid package for Israel and Ukraine. It is expected to be similar to a stand-alone measure that passed the House last month with bipartisan support, the most significant step yet by Congress to force the sale of a foreign-owned app of TikTok’s size.

预计众议院将再次试图推动立法，迫使TikTok的中国所有者字节跳动出售TikTok，或者首次在美国对该应用程序实施禁令，这一次还将其纳入对以色列和乌克兰的援助计划。预计这项措施将类似于上个月众议院在两党支持下通过的一项独立措施，这是国会迄今为止在强制出售TikTok这样规模的外资应用方面迈出的最重要一步。

Digital rights groups and others around the world have taken notice — and raised the question of how the moves against TikTok contradict the United States’ arguments in favor of an open internet.

世界各地的数字权利组织和其他组织都注意到了这一点，并提出了一个问题：针对TikTok的举措与美国支持开放互联网的观点存在着何种矛盾。

A Russian opposition blogger, Aleksandr Gorbunov, posted on social media last month that Russia could use the move to shut down services like YouTube. And digital rights advocates globally are expressing fears of a ripple effect, with the United States providing cover for authoritarians who want to censor the internet.

俄罗斯反对派博客作者亚历山大·戈尔布诺夫上个月在社交媒体上发帖称，俄罗斯可能会利用此举关闭YouTube等服务。全球的数字权利倡导者担心美国此举会为那些想要审查互联网的威权主义者提供借口，从而引发连锁反应。

In March, the Chinese government, which controls its country’s internet, said America had “one way of saying and doing things about the United States, and another way of saying and doing things about other countries,” citing the TikTok legislation.

今年3月，控制着本国互联网的中国政府引用TikTok立法，称美国“说一套做一套”。

By targeting TikTok — a social media platform with 170 million U.S. users, many of them sharing dance moves, opining on politics and selling wares — the United States may undermine its decades-long efforts to promote an open and free internet governed by international organizations, not individual countries, digital rights advocates said. The web in recent years has fragmented as authoritarian governments in China and Russia increasingly encroach on their citizens’ internet access.

TikTok是一个拥有1.7亿美国用户的社交媒体平台，许多用户在上面分享舞蹈动作，发表政治观点和销售商品。数字权利倡导者表示，美国把矛头指向TikTok可能会破坏其数十年的努力，即促进由国际组织而非个别国家来管理的开放自由互联网。近年来，随着中国和俄罗斯的威权政府日益侵犯其公民的互联网访问权，互联网已经支离破碎。

“It would diminish the U.S.’s standing in promoting internet freedom,” said Juan Carlos Lara, the executive director of Derechos Digitales, a Latin American digital rights group based in Chile. “It would definitely not bolster its own case for promoting a free and secure, stable and interoperable internet.”

“这将削弱美国在促进互联网自由方面的地位，”总部位于智利的拉丁美洲数字版权组织数字权利(Derechos Digitales)的总干事胡安·卡洛斯·拉拉说。“这绝对不会增强美国促进自由、安全、稳定和可互操作互联网的能力。”

The American vision for an open internet dates to the 1990s when President Bill Clinton said the internet should be a “global free-trade zone.” Administrations — including the Biden White House — have struck deals to keep data flowing between the United States and Europe. And the State Department has condemned censorship, including Nigeria’s and Pakistan’s restrictions on access to Twitter, now known as X.

美国对开放互联网的愿景可以追溯到20世纪90年代，当时克林顿总统表示，互联网应该是一个“全球自由贸易区”。包括拜登政府在内的历届政府已经达成协议，保持美国和欧洲之间的数据流动。美国国务院谴责审查制度，包括尼日利亚和巴基斯坦对Twitter（现在被称为X）的限制。

Now, fueled by concerns that TikTok could send data to the Chinese government or act as a conduit for Beijing’s propaganda, the legislation that passed the House last month would require ByteDance to sell TikTok to a buyer that satisfied the U.S. government within six months. If the company doesn’t find a buyer, app stores must stop offering the app for downloads, and web hosting companies couldn’t host TikTok. (It remains to be seen if the version of the measure likely to appear alongside the aid package will include changes to the deadline or other facets of the bill.)

如今，由于担心TikTok可能会向中国政府发送数据，或成为北京的宣传渠道，众议院上月通过的立法要求字节跳动在六个月内将TikTok出售给一个让美国政府满意的买家。如果该公司找不到买家，应用商店必须停止提供该应用的下载服务，网络托管公司也不能托管TikTok。（可能与援助方案一起出现的具体措施，是否会包括对最后期限或法案其他方面的修改，目前尚不得而知。）

The passage of the House bill in March, currently under consideration in the Senate, prompted global angst.

众议院于3月通过法案，目前正在参议院审议中，这引发了全球的焦虑。

Mr. Gorbunov, a Russian blogger who goes by the handle Stalin_Gulag, wrote on the social media service Telegram in March that a TikTok ban could result in further censorship in his country.

网名Stalin_Gulag（斯大林_古拉格）的戈尔布诺夫今年3月在社交媒体服务Telegram上写道，对TikTok的禁令可能会导致俄罗斯进一步的审查制度。

“I don’t think the obvious thing needs to be stated out loud, which is that when Russia blocks YouTube, they’ll justify it with precisely this decision of the United States,” Mr. Gorbunov said.

“我不认为这么显而易见的事情需要大声说出来，那就是，当俄罗斯封杀YouTube时，他们会用美国的这个决定来为自己辩护，”戈尔布诺夫说。

Mishi Choudhary, a lawyer who founded the New Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Center, said the Indian government would also use a U.S. ban to justify further crackdowns. It has already engaged in internet shutdowns, she said, and it banned TikTok in 2020 over border conflicts with China.

位于新德里的软件自由法律中心创始人、律师米希·乔杜里说，印度政府也会利用美国的禁令来为进一步的打击行动辩护。她说，印度政府已经开始封闭互联网，并在2020年因与中国的边境冲突而禁止了TikTok。

“This gives them good reason to find confidence in their past actions, but also emboldens them to take similar future actions,” she said in an interview.

她在接受采访时说：“这让他们有充分的理由对自己过去的行动充满信心，也让他们有勇气在未来采取类似的行动。”

Mr. Lara of Derechos Digitales noted that countries like Venezuela and Nicaragua had already passed laws that gave the government more control over online content. He said increased government control of the internet was a “tempting idea” that “really risks materializing if such a thing is seen in places like the U.S.”

数字权利组织的拉拉指出，委内瑞拉和尼加拉瓜等国已经通过法律，赋予政府对网络内容更多的控制权。他说，加强政府对互联网的控制是一个“诱人的想法”，“如果在美国这样的地方看到这样的事情，那就真的有可能实现”。

A forced sale or ban of TikTok could also make it harder for the American government to ask other countries to embrace an internet governed by international organizations, digital rights experts said.

数字版权专家表示，强制出售或禁止TikTok还会使美国政府更难要求其他国家接受一个由国际组织管理的互联网。

China in particular has built a system of internet censorship, arguing that individual countries should have more power to set the rules of the web. Beijing blocks access to products made by American tech giants, including Google’s search engine, Facebook and Instagram.

特别是中国，它建立了一套互联网审查体系，认为各个国家应该有更大的权力来制定网络规则。北京禁止访问多家美国科技巨头的产品，包括谷歌的搜索引擎，以及Facebook和Instagram。

Other countries have followed Beijing’s lead. Russia blocks online content. India and Turkey have measures enabling them to demand that social media posts be removed.

其他国家也纷纷效仿北京的做法。俄罗斯封锁网络内容。印度和土耳其采取措施，使他们能够要求社交媒体删帖。

Patrick Toomey, the deputy director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, said that if the TikTok measure became law, the “hypocrisy would be inescapable and the dividends to China enormous.” The A.C.L.U. has been one of the most prominent groups opposing the TikTok legislation.

美国公民自由联盟国家安全项目副主任帕特里克·图米表示，如果针对TikTok的措施成为法律，“虚伪将是不可避免的，会给中国带来巨大的好处。”该联盟一直是反对关于TikTok立法的最著名团体之一。

Any U.S. TikTok ban or sale would require officials to explain why the measure was different from efforts in other countries to restrict the flow of digital data inside their borders, said Peter Harrell, previously the National Security Council’s senior director for international economics and competitiveness in the Biden administration. The United States has pushed for data to be able to flow between countries unhindered.

曾在拜登政府担任国家安全委员会国际经济与竞争力高级主管的彼得·哈雷尔说，美国对TikTok的任何禁令或出售都需要官员做出解释，这项措施与其他国家限制数字数据在其境内流动的行动有何不同。美国一直主张数据应不受阻碍地在各国之间流动。

“I’m in favor of action on TikTok here, but we are going to have to scramble to play catch-up on the diplomatic front,” Mr. Harrell said.

“我支持就TikTok采取行动，但我们将不得不在外交战线上努力弥补，”哈雷尔说。

Still, other supporters of the legislation rejected the notion that action against TikTok would undermine the United States on internet policy.

尽管如此，该法案的其他支持者拒绝接受针对TikTok的行动会破坏美国互联网政策的说法。

An aide to the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, who was not authorized to discuss the legislation publicly, argued that the measure would benefit internet freedom by reducing the risk of China’s influence over TikTok.

众议院美国与中国共产党战略竞争特设委员会的一名助理说，这项措施会降低中国影响TikTok带来的风险，因此对互联网自由有益，该助理没有得到公开讨论该立法的授权。

In a statement, a spokesman for the National Security Council said the United States “remains committed to an open internet.”

美国国家安全委员会发言人在声明中表示，美国“仍然致力于开放的互联网”。

“There is no tension between that commitment and our responsibility to safeguard our national security by preventing the specific threats posed by certain adversaries being able to put at risk Americans’ personal information and manipulate Americans’ discourse,” the spokesman added.

“这一承诺与我们防止某些对手威胁美国人的个人信息并操纵美国人的言论，从而维护国家安全这一责任并不存在矛盾，”这位发言人还说。